Tigers are always fearsome, whatever the situation

Is it easier to be playing Leicester when they’re coming off a defeat in the Heineken Cup by Leinster or when they’re on a winning run? On the one hand, a recent defeat might affect their morale slightly but they’ll be fired up to put things straight.

It’s going to be extremely tough for us at Welford Road on Saturday. I was saying to someone the other day that, whatever form you take into a Tigers game, you have to make sure that you’re absolutely on top of your game and that your mindset is where it needs to be.

If they’ve won a few in a row, they’ll be coming in to the game with a lot of confidence. Some teams may be slightly over confident or complacent but I don’t think the Tigers are that kind of outfit.

The bottom line is that it’s always a huge ask going to Welford Road. Their record there speaks for itself. We got beat at Sale last week so there’s probably not a huge amount expected of us so you could argue that the pressure is off us.

However, we’re going there to put in a performance. If you lose a game but the performance is there, then you can take something away from it. But, without a decent performance you have nothing.

We’ve got a tough week ahead of us and it’s important that we front up at Welford Road, do ourselves justice and see where that leaves us. Apologies for the cliché, but we can only take the next week one game at a time and it’ll all start with giving it a go at Leicester on Saturday.